Serie A clubs agree to help Parma finish the season

MILAN, March 6 (Reuters) - Serie A clubs have agreed a deal that will allow bottom club Parma, beset by financial problems, to complete the season, the league said after a meeting on Friday.

Parma's players have not been paid all season and their last two Serie A matches have been postponed -- one because they could not afford stewards or police at their Tardini stadium and the other after the players refused to play.

"The resolution was adopted confirming the willingness of the league to help Parma continue in the championship," said Serie A president Maurizio Beretta in a statement.

He added that Italian football federation president Carlo Tavecchio would travel to Parma to put the proposed plan to the players.

Parma said on their website that Sunday's match at home to Atalanta had been given the all clear by local safety officials and would go ahead.

Parma are due to face a bankruptcy hearing on March 19 and there was concern that if the club was wound up their remaining matches would be awarded as 3-0 walkovers to their opponents, discrediting the championship.

Beretta told reporters a fund of five million euros ($5.43 million) would be created from money received from fines paid by the clubs for crowd trouble and other breaches of Serie A regulations.

"If the club is passed over to a bankruptcy administrator on March 19, we shall intervene," he said. "We'll decide how exactly to intervene along with the administrator."

Italian media said that 16 of the 20 Serie A clubs voted in favour of the bailout, three abstained and Cesena voted against.

Parma have only 10 points and the club have already changed hands twice this season, firstly to a Russian-Cypriot conglomerate and then to the Slovenia-based Mapi group.

Parma have never won Serie A but lifted two UEFA Cups in 1995 and 1999, the 1993 European Cup Winners' Cup and three Italian Cups in a successful spell between 1992 and 2002.

They finished as Serie A runners-up in 1997 led by current Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti and boasted players such as Gianfranco Zola, Faustino Asprilla and Hernan Crespo.